


Forgive

by SkyTheLoner



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff, Forgiveness, Gen, Maybe - Freeform, One-Shot, Post-Episode s05e29-32 Change Your Mind, Purple Prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-10-30 11:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17828108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyTheLoner/pseuds/SkyTheLoner
Summary: White Diamond learns that time can't heal all wounds.





	Forgive

**Author's Note:**

> oof I'm sorry there's so much prose but i'm also not.
> 
> I was lowkey tempted to end it after steven's blunt as heck answer.  
> IDK where this was going.

The only sound was the sound of the waves crashing onto the sandy shores of the beach, leaving behind only white foam. It was a soothing pattern that she watched with a faraway expression, her milky gaze staring off into the distance. This planet was so incredible vast, stretching on and on as an endless plain of blues and browns and greens that disappeared into the dark purples of the night sky. The sunsets on her home planet weren't as colorful, just a blur of soft greys and lavenders and a single orb of white. Once, there might have been two twin suns that coexisted there, circling each other in a slow dance, cannibalously eating away at each other; there had been a bright dot in in the sky beside the sun for a time. This world had only a single sun, burning and releasing solar flares into the vastness of space. She felt the grainy roughness of the sand particles under her bare fingertips, getting under her long sable fingernails as she sunk them into the beach.

She glanced down.

A small human child sat beside her, so easily dwarfed by her colossal form that it was almost laughable. She was something of a titan to the beings on this small blue planet, yet she sat here next to the small human boy as if they were equals.

And maybe they were.

The two of them stayed in that almost uneasy silence for a moment more, until Steven glanced upwards and accidentally meet her gaze. He quickly looked back down again.

He was scared of her, White Diamond realized. Or maybe she already knew from the way he had cringed away when she tried to pet his puffy mass of hair to see if it felt like his mother's. She swallowed down her newfound social anxiety to everyone that wasn't Yellow or Blue, and parted her lips to ask a question she might already know the answer to. Somewhere, Steven's consciousness showed white and greys and spots of black and flashes of memories.

"Did she forgive me?" she asked.

It's tentative and hopeful and wondering, and it sounds utterly pointless vibrating in her throat and out her mouth.

The boy looked up again, wiped his watery eyes, tilted his head, and asked, " _Who?_ "

And White felt her throat become dry as she struggled to think of an answer. She was talking about Pink Diamond, of course, but Pink had given up being Pink Diamond thousands of years ago. So, maybe she meant Rose Quartz.

She opened her mouth again and spoke without thinking:  _"Pink._ " She felt her cheeks burn and change color like a scorched forest. "Rose," she corrected.

Steven stayed silent for a long time. His face shifted into multiple expressions, ranging from fear to anger to thoughtfulness.

His consciousness showed shades of pink and whites and greys and spots of black. And contextless memories that in hindsight she knew were not his own.

White waited.

"No."

("I'm not going to say sorry," he said to himself.)

Steven took a deep breath and continued, "I... don't think mom forgave you at the end of her life." Rubbing his arm to protect from the chill, he explained, "You never changed during the time she was alive and I'm not even sure if she..."

He trailed off, his brown gaze pained as he was suddenly bombarded with more flashes of memory.

His consciousness showed a blurry face and a wicked, evil grin and whites and greys and spots of black.

"...if she loved you."

"Did she hate me then?"

He shrugged. After a moment, he commented, "Blue said all of you used to have so much fun together... What did you guys do before all of this?"

White found that she had trouble coming up with an answer.

She knew what they had all done together, sure, but trying to say anything felt...  _fake_.

She remembered the first time Pink had used her floating powers. Blue had called her, smiling, and had told her that the young diamond had awakened her powers. She had become extremely happy upon seeing a strange organic from one of Blue's colonies and her and Yellow were interested enough to come and see. Blue and Yellow had indulged in Pink's game that day, but White...

She had just watched, maybe smiled once or twice, and had left.

And every time after that...

She had just watched.

"I..." she tried to say, "...don't know."

Steven tilted his head, confused. Then he shrugged again.

"Well," he began, "you can't change the past. You can't... fix your relationship with mom..."

White's gaze dropped to her feet and, if she was remembering correctly, this feeling burning a hole in her insides was  _shame._ And when she thought about... Rose, she felt  _sad._ She wasn't supposed to be feeling things.

But she did.

"...but you can try to fix everything else. And maybe somethings won't work out," he said. "But that's okay."

Steven was silent now. 

His consciousness showed other colors now. Pink. There was a lot of pink and then there were pastel blues and yellows and pinks and white. And purples and dark scarlet. The pearl, the amethyst, the fusion garnet. His family.

(Her family.)

White began to push herself to her feet.

Steven watched her with his watery eyes as she stood up, towering over him. This small little hybrid was the product of Rose Quartz's love for everything on this sphere of dirt floating in space. A fusion and representation of her love for humanity and how they changed so easily. And his love for himself.

"Everything's changed," she whispered softly to herself.

Steven chuckled a bit and said, "Yeah. That's just how it is on Earth."

White simply nodded.

"Everything changes... even you."

**Author's Note:**

> like on one hand I know the diamonds have a long ways to go until they can be truely redeemed, but on the other hand...
> 
> Diamond moms.


End file.
